This Time its Personal – Why Arts Dept Now?

Posted on by johnob21

When I started writing this just over a week ago 7,572 people had signed a petition for the creation of an adequately resourced Department of Arts, Culture and Heritage. I put the petition on Uplift  because I was angry and frustrated that the tireless efforts of the many people who work in arts, culture and heritage, that the incredible impact their work has – and could have – on the community, on the lives of so many, had been downgraded again. The new department has droped culture and heritage entirely from its name and it appears, as Emily Mark Fitgerald said in her blog that Arts had been stapled onto the end. The response to this petition has been overwhelming.

Continue reading This Time its Personal – Why Arts Dept Now?

Let’s Deal with the Funding – quickly.

Posted on by johnob21

The Uplift Campaign for an adequately resourced Department of Arts, Culture and Heritage now has 13,120+ signatures.  That is phenomenal.

The Minister, on radio, in print, and on social media, has tried to move the debate to a question of Funding. The phrase “seeking more funding” has been used by the Minister again and again. I don’t think this is a deliberate strategy.  I think it is the result of a political confusion of policy and budgeting.

If we engage with the Funding debate for a moment, we need to ask are there quick ways to create funding opportunities for all artists without increasing the department budget? Wouldn’t that be interesting? Continue reading Let’s Deal with the Funding – quickly.

Part II – In Every Crisis an Opportunity….for the Government

Posted on by johnob21

The Uplift petition launched in response to the downgrading of the Arts brief and the complete denial of Culture and Heritage as areas of significance or interest has now gathered 12,400 signatures.  It has prompted unparalleled media coverage, a brilliant social media response (with some really creative threads), and is rapidly turning into a political hot potato. The support for this petition is unquestionable and its importance to people (not just “the arts community”)  is undeniable.   Well done everybody.

What the Minister and the Taoiseach – and the whole of government – need to realise is that this is the single greatest opportunity they have ever been offered.

It is an opportunity to redesign the culture, arts and Heritage sector, and build a department and associated agencies, legislation and funding tools that will create a thriving, sustainable sector capable of creating real wealth, real jobs, and real social value in terms of health, education, welfare, and innovation. An opportunity to create a cultural sector and  policy that would be a shining example to the rest of the world.

That would be a magnificent legacy.

So, Minister, Taoiseach, elected representatives. Have you the desire to leave that legacy? Have you the Leadership to grab this opportunity and turn it to the advantage of the whole nation?

Because those are the real questions you have to answer now.

Continue reading Part II – In Every Crisis an Opportunity….for the Government

When To Not Follow The Money

Posted on by johnob21

As I write this 10,394 people – artists (of all types), teachers, parents, dog lovers, cyclists, computer heads, gamers, teenagers – have signed a petition calling for the creation of a dedicated department of Arts, Culture and Heritage, adequately resourced, and for the rollout of a national cultural policy to be ratified by those who work in these sectors.

The petition has sparked a flurry of activity in the media, and forced the Minister for Regional Development, Rural Affairs, Arts and the Gaeltacht to request a meeting with the  National Campaign for the Arts. Be in no doubt, it is the actions and expressions of 10,000+ people that have forced this meeting – not a concern for or an understanding of culture, or  creativity or community or “The Arts”. 

We have their attention: the only real question is what can happen now?

Continue reading When To Not Follow The Money

The Collapse of the Arts – in Every Crisis an Opportunity

Posted on by johnob21

The Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht has been effectively disbanded, and the arts and cultural sector is now overseen by Rural Affairs. The downgrading of the department – and the inevitable downgrading of the Arts Council and Local Authority Funding is all part of the Fine Gael led neo-liberal passion for austerity and increasing inequality.

(The Campaign to Create a Department of Art, Culture and Heritage is here https://my.uplift.ie/p/dach if you wish to sign it)

The only relevant questions are how will this play out, what will the impact be, and what is the strategy for resistence.

Continue reading The Collapse of the Arts – in Every Crisis an Opportunity

Unlocking the Power of Philanthropy in Arts and Culture

Posted on by johnob21

Why Can’t I get Donations?

Everybody working in the arts and culture industry is feeling the pressure. State funding is declining and the funding agencies are promoting the argument that philanthropy must fill the gap left by the cutbacks. Arts organisations are all taking fund-raising courses, appointing funding executives, skilling up on varieties of CRM tools and soaking up the sayings of the new gurus – impact drives income, and you have to tell a compelling story about what you do, etc. etc.

I’m actually a big fan of all this, but there is a danger that we oversimplify the economic realities of philanthropy as well as its ethical implications.

The question is, can everybody build a sustainable artistic or cultural enterprise based on philanthropy and the answer is no – regardless of impact or compelling narrative. But that can be changed.

Continue reading Unlocking the Power of Philanthropy in Arts and Culture

When is a theatre company a Theatre Company

Posted on by johnob21

A couple of years ago I had to end a business relationship with an old friend. Something I would rather not have done. However, it was necessary when I realised that that person’s company wasn’t a company.  It was a legal fiction, necessary if he was to receive grants and commissions, it had no assets, no investors, and no long term plan. It did one thing (one set of tasks) and repeated it again and again – whenever it got a grant or a commission. Essentially this friend did one thing and hawked that skill around: they were a freelancer. Not a company. Not really. And this came as a shock to them.

Continue reading When is a theatre company a Theatre Company

What kind of Arts Council do we need?

Posted on by johnob21

As Peter Brook once remarked, theatre is now, and always has been, in crisis. Whatever the nature of the continuing existential threat that Brook Identified the truth is that theatre in Ireland (as in many other parts of the world) is facing a sustained economic and ideological challenge that will change how we conceive of, create, and experience theatre.

Continue reading What kind of Arts Council do we need?

“What shall we do, now that we are happy?” – Reconciling the intrinsic and the instrumental in the Culture Industry

Posted on by johnob21

I was in conversation recently with one of our leading theatre artists. The topic of the government’s impending national culture policy discussion document, culture2025, came up so I asked their opinion. They looked up from under lowered brows and uttered, in that tired contemptuous tone, a single word: “Instrumentalist”.

Continue reading “What shall we do, now that we are happy?” – Reconciling the intrinsic and the instrumental in the Culture Industry

Culturally Creative or Creatively Cultural? What the hell are we talking about?!

Posted on by johnob21

I’m sorry, you say I’m doing what?

For artists, arts policy makers, politicians, strategists, consultants, entrepreneurs, CEOs and, well, mostly artists “the world is in a terrible state of chassis”, as Sean O’Casey wrote. (“Chassis” meaning “chaos’ for those of us not familiar with his work). Time was you could talk about Arts and Culture (nearly always with capital letters) and everybody – including you – knew what you meant. It’s why the Irish Arts Act lists what can be considered as art with great confidence and only included cinema in its second iteration. It made life easy for the funding agencies that were brought into existence to protect and develop The Arts (because we all knew what art was) and allowed us to quietly divide the society between the cultured (those who appreciated The Arts) and the uncultured (those who did not).  Alas, all has changed, a terrible beauty has been born, as Yeats would say.

We now have to contend with arts, culture (no capital letters), heritage, co-creation, prosumers (yes its a word), creative, industry, imagination, creative industries, culture and cultural industries, Culture 3.0, and of course the ongoing manichean struggle between intrinsic and instrumental value.  It ain’t easy.

So, with the Irish Government’s  first ever cultural policy – Culture2025 – in the pipeline I thought I’d try to tease out some of the key terms that are going to get thrown around in the forthcoming debate. It’s important that we all agree on the meaning of the words we use in this debate and how they relate to each other or we’re in danger of leaving the table with very different expectations. Agreeing on the meaning of what we’re saying is the first step toward strategic alignment – that magical state where everybody works together toward the same goal.

Continue reading Culturally Creative or Creatively Cultural? What the hell are we talking about?!